Dengue cases up by 34% -- Philippine health department

Inquirer (Philippines) via Agence France-Presse: The country recorded 9,176 cases of dengue fever nationwide from January 1 to April 5 this year, an increase of almost 34 percent over the same period last year, the health department said Saturday. Deaths due to dengue fever reached 108 in the year to April 5, a sharp increase from the 74 deaths recorded in the same period last year, according to figures released by the department.

Most of the victims were male with the youngest victim one month old and the oldest 87 years. Health officials did not give a reason for the increase in the number of cases. The nation's capital of Metropolitan Manila had the most cases recorded with 2,832, the department said.

World Health Organization officials earlier this year warned that climate change was increasing the incidence of dengue fever and other infectious diseases in this country. There is no known cure or vaccine to fight dengue fever, which is transmitted by the white-spotted mosquito.

An objective photographer named "snowyowls" took this shot of a mosquito on her (his?) leg. Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 License.